The Forgotten Temple
----Sachiel was sitting in an alcove near the top of the guild's front facing tower, looking out at the sea as the sun was starting to crest over the horizon. He sighed, happily enjoying the view as he has for long time. "Well I wonder if anyone has woken up yet" he said to him self. He got up and walked down to the main hall, and decided to start the day by making a small breakfast in the kitchen. Hearing a rustle and the sound of a door clicking shut, Sachiel looks to see a fellow guild member walking into the common area in just a pair of white pants. A towel is draped around his shoulders as he uses it to wipe down his messy, wet brown hair. The rest of his clothes seem to be hanging in his left hand, along with a newboy cap. Walking towards the window, this man uses his free hand and pulls all of the water that is falling down his exposed chest and collects it into the form of a ball, throwing it with a laugh at the sea outside. Beginning to dress himself in a dark green button up and a white vest, the man turns to Sachiel. "Good morning there. I didn't think anyone was up this early, so I thought I'd make the most of the empty bathing hall. Don't think I've seen you around before; the name's Darius. I'm a bit new here." Placing his cap atop his head, he walks a bit closer and peers over the shoulder of Sachiel. "Whatcha cooking?" Sachiel said deadpan "I didn't sleep. Was too busy watching the sea. I'm making some waffles for everyone." He turned his attention back to the waffles as he started to pour the batter on the waffle makers. "My name is Sachiel. I was probably flying somewhere when you got here." "Nice to meet ya Sachiel. You been with the guild a long time? Anyone I should watch out for? Aside from one of the guild masters hating my guts..." Darius says, the last statement slightly under his breath. He then opens up the fridge and pulls out some strawberries. He washes his hands briskly and then protrudes a thin, sharp bone from the tip of his index finger and begins cutting up the berries to later put atop his waffles. Sachiel watched as the bone came out of the finger, hoping not to see blood. "That... looks uncomfortable." He said. He finished the batch of waffles that he was working on and sat down at a table and started to eat. "So where do you hail from?" Sachiel said between bites. "Nope, it's not uncomfortable at all. My body heals itself rapidly enough that I hardly even feel it anymore." Darius says as the bone retracts back under his skin. He joins Sachiel at the table and begins to cut up his waffle with a knife this time; seeing the previous discomfort of his guild mate. "I come from Bosco originally. But you can probably guess why they kicked me out. They say my magic is that of the Devil's." He says with slight malice, reflecting the tone he once heard in the people he called his neighbors. He brushes it off with a laugh, then asks, "What about you Sachiel, where you from?"l"Oh, you know," Sachiel said, not knowing how to describe it. "Someplace far removed from here. Also, you use bone magic right? It's not the magic of a devil, that's just people fearing what they don't understand." Sachiel took another bite of his waffles. "Come to think of it, I don't remember what kind of magic he had..." Sachiel's eyes seemed to not be focused on anything as he was deep in thought. He snapped back a moment later. "Hey you asked if there was anyone to watch for in this guild? Not necessarily. We all can have our bad moments of anger and frustration, but we are normally calm and encouraging of one another." "Bu--...Wait. The dev--...Nevermind." Darius began to ask, seeing as Sachiel avoided the question of where he was from, and mentioned something odd about the devil. He stopped himself, as he didn't want to pry, and accidentally anger one of the few people who have begun to accept him in this guild. Shaking off his blunder, Darius stands up and goes to wash his plate, placing it in a nearby drying rack. "Well I thank you for the waffles, please help yourself to some strawberries." Adjusting his cap, he begins walking towards the nearby board located in the central common area. "I think I will browse the job board a bit and find a suitable one to take today. What are you up to today my friend?" Sachiel listened to Darius, seeing how he was a bit shaken over something. He popped a strawberry in his mouth. "Nothing special. I was actually thinking of taking a job as well. Why don't we team up? I'm down for anything. Wow that was a good strawberry!" he said taking another one. He got up and put away his dish and wrapped up the rest of the food to save for the others. He walked over to the board to search with Darius. "See anything you like?" "Teaming up would be fun! Let's do it! And I don't know, let's see here..." Darius says as he begins inspecting the papers posted. Lifting up the parchment Darius reads over all descriptions then pulls off a particularly interesting one. "How about this one mate? Haunted temple; bound to be a good story to tell afterwards right?" He says with a cheeky smile. "A haunting? Haven't dealt with one of those in a while. I'm in! Where is it at?" Sachiel said back to Darius, focusing on him. "Looks like it's right outside of Crocus. Makes sense because the requester says there is a lot of people who visit this temple." Darius nods as he examines the paper. "Glad you have some experience in this, should make it easier. The reward will be pretty nice to if we split it; 725,000 Jewels each. Definitely worth it." Sachiel took the paper from Darius for a moment. "Alright then when shall we leave? How do you want to get there?" Sachiel put the paper down and went over to a stair way. "I am going to change first before anything, so I'll meet you back here." "Alright, we can leave when you get back. And we should probably take a boat, perhaps I can construct something and you can give us the power to propel ourselves to shore?" Darius suggested as he takes a seat on the couch and waits for his new partner. A few moments later, Sachiel came down in his normal looking clothes. "You ready to go?" Sachiel asked as he headed for the door. "Yeah, lets get going." Darius follows suit and steps foot on the shore of the guild. "Well time to see catch ourselves a ghost! Bone-Make:Boat!" Darius said as he presses his hands to the ground as a white bone boat appeared floating in the water. "This reminds me of the old Grecian myths of Charon, the ferryman of the River Styx. Anyways, let's get going." Sachiel said as he sat in the back of the boat sideways, with his hand on the water ready to go. "Do you have everything you think you'll need?" "Now you know why people associated my magic with the devil and death himself..." Darius says a bit somber as he checks his pockets. "Yeah, got all I need. Don't think I'll need to pack heavy anyways. With men of our skill, we should be done quickly, don't you think?" He said with a grin. "Hades and hell are two very different things. I think it's kind of cool." Sachiel said, trying to reassure him. "I think we can get everything done in at least a day." Darius got in the boat and Sachiel manipulated the water, accelerating the boat rapidly and leaving a large wake behind them. "Ah I think it's all based on what you believe in...funny that we are talking about our beliefs when we are heading to a temple, huh?" Darius says as he leans over to watch the water pass. The shore approaches quickly and they debark to board a train to the city of Crocus. Darius gazes out the window on their way into the city and sees the forest covered in mist, the temple poking through the dense fog. Darius turns to Sachiel who is sitting across from him. "Up for a bit of a rush? I say let's jump off now. No need to backtrack back from the center of the city." He says as he gestures out the window with his thumb. Sachiel looked out to the forest floor below. "Looks soft enough. I'll go first." Sachiel said as they walked to the back of the train car. They opened the exterior door and double checked how much room they had. Sachiel jumped out and landed with a soft thought on both feet into a tuck and roll forward to cancel out his momentum. He looked towards the train and started to jog at a quick pace to watch Darius jump. Darius leapt off the train into a fluid front roll, and got up to dust himself off just as Sachiel approached him. Through his boisterous laugh he spouts, "Oh man, I haven't done that since I was a kid!" His smile changes from one of remembrance to one of excitement as he looks towards the misty forest at the silhouette of the temple grounds in the distance. "Looks fitting for the home of a spirit. Very intriguing." Sachiel looked towards the temple, sensing something was off. "Whatever is in there is very angry. We better hurry before it gets stronger." he said as he walked into the misty forest without hesitation. His visibility dropped significantly within seconds. "Darius you coming? It would be bad if we got separated." "Yeah, you're right. Hold up." Darius said, jogging slightly to catch up with his partner. The two enter a stone city, the rubble hugged tightly by the surrounding mist. The two glanced around and noticed different alters where it seemed offerings and prayers used to take place, but the smooth stone showed that the dust had not been disturbed in some time. "Looks like it's been abandoned for about a week now. My gut says starting in that central temple would probably be our best bet at getting this spirit to come out." Darius says pointing to a grandiose building with gold decor and fine detail on the stone. Sachiel nodded as they walked towards the building in question, and as they got closer the grand scale of it became more apparent. "Wow this architecture is pretty. But I have the feeling that the spirit isn't going to go away peacefully. I feel bad for the building." As they got closer they began to feel a spiritual pressure around them. They arrived at the main building when Sachiel stopped them for a moment. "You ready for this? Ghosts, spirits, poltergeists, they are strange ideas and even stranger creatures." Darius nods his head, his demeanor turning a bit serious as the two walk into the temple. They based through the series of gates that lead to the sacred spaces but were drawn away by the sounds radiating from the central courtyard. Darius and Sachiel exchange a look and slowly walk towards the courtyard where they spy a peculiar sight. In the courtyard was a gathering of monks of various ages and sizes. The main similarity of the monks were the light blue haoris tied with orange sashes they all wore. A calming melody was played on the flute by a younger man sitting under a tree while two little kids sparred with wooden bō. A group of older monks sat at a stone table quietly sipping tea until one turned slowly, smiled and waved the wizards over. "Welcome to the Shinami Temple." Sachiel looked around, bewildered at the sight of so many people in the temple. "This place was supposedly undisturbed, right Darius? What is with all the people then..." Sachiel slowly walked over to the monks and bowed slightly in respect. "Thank you for having us. Seems like things are pretty lively today. Hope we didn't intrude." Sachiel said as he sat near the monks. "May we join you?" he asked politely. "Yes, I would care to get to know the history of this temple if you have the time? I have always been fascinated by the practices of monks. What is it that you guys practice here?" Darius follows up Sachiels question, with some of his own. Curious at the fact that there are so many monks here, yet he feels an odd sense in the air...something that is reminiscent of a cloud of magic, but the mass of voices and music distract his sense far too much to focus on it. One of the older men motioned for them to sit as the flute melody continued to flow through the air. "We have practiced for over a hundred years. Our focus is on strengthening our connection to our deity, Yaldir, the god of the moon and tides. We also practice acupuncture and massage to release tension through the pressure points in our body. Would you like some Tea?" A gray-haired monk said politely to the visitors. The majority of the younger monks had gathered around, looking at Darius and Sachiel's strange clothing with wonder. "Yes, I would like some."Sachiel responded. As he was handed a cup filled with tea, he scanned the monks, trying to discern different energies from the beings in front of him, but was picking up his own, Darius' and a spread out one around the room. Strange. We should go along with this charade for now though. he thought with a smile on his face towards the monks. "So your deity is the god of the moon and tides? That's wonderful to hear! Our guild actually is mostly made up of water and ice mages. We came to explore this region for possible new recruits for our guild when we heard about your temple and decided to take a look." Sachiel said, taking a sip from his tea as he looked towards Darius to see how he responds next. Darius puts out his hand, palm facing flat towards the gray haired monk, shaking his head slightly. "None for me, thank you though. I had some tea on the train, too much more and I will have too much energy to know what to do!" He laughs out. As the monk nods and leaves to fetch a tea kettle and cups, Darius casts a questioning look to his partner over the sea of the young monks heads that seem to be gathered around. He questions the area, scanning the faces of each monk to deem if anything is amiss in this possessed temple. It is hard to believe that this group of so-called spirits would ever cause any sort of harm to the people, forcing them to halt their worship here. Yet he knows that the rumors are true, for even the man at the train station told them to steer clear of such a place. The demeanor of the crowd seemed lively, but Darius found something amiss when he was able to tune in to the conversations of some of the outside groups. From what he could hear the conversation amongst them was of no substance, hardly making sense in syntax and flow. Most of the monks have actually been doing little talking now that he has taken notice, merely sparring and meditating, spouting sounds that would blend with the mass of noise to give the appearance of a boisterous courtyard. What is this?? The great cloud of magic surrounding us...the multitude of mages unable to speak...Necromancy? No... Those bodies would have independent minds, easily able to carry on conversations with that of their master. This must be some sort of illusion or construct. No mage would have the power to elicit dialogue of such magnitude to be able to give each group of people their own unique discussion. That must be why only one monk has spoken to us, despite our title as outsiders. But who is casting such a spell... Darius thinks to himself, his face contorting with angered confusion as he tries to seek out the point of origin. He spots the monk returning with the tea and knows that he must do his best to keep up this facade until he can find the true mage. The puppeteer knew that they were discovering his trick and blended further into his illusion, surrounding himself within the sea of blue robes. I've got to get them out of here. The capped one has already noticed. He thought, the puppeteer then directed the spirit of Damion to speak again, inflicting his own thoughts through the illusion's voice. "I would appreciate it if you didn't disrupt our silence any longer." The elder man, Damion stated. Many of the other monks moved away, staring with what looked to be disbelief at the man. Sachiel noticed after he took another sip of tea the movements of the monks around him. Strange, they seem to be confused by his words. Sachiel thought as he put his cup down to his side before bowing slightly. "We are truly sorry for disturbing any silence that we broke here." He said genuinely, hoping to lighten the mood. "I'm sorry, where are our manners. We haven't properly introduced ourselves. My name is Sachiel Winterrun. This gentleman with me is Darius. We are both mages at the newly formed guild, Crashing Wave. Well, it is a relatively new guild." Sachiel said as he looked back up at the monk. "Yeah, we are just loo--" Darius begins, but is caught off guard by a rise in magical energy from the location. The caster must be going on the defensive, perhaps I may have tipped him off. But no matter, his actions will give away his position... Darius closes his eyes in intense focus, doing his best to pinpoint the exact epicenter of this mass of magic. He then feels a strong energy coming from the tree in the back. Darius quickly opens his eyes and directs them towards this strong mage, he quickly scans him up and down, see that he is the one who was playing the flute when they first walked in. That must be it! Darius then holds up his index finger and shouts, "There!" as a small bone bullet shoots out of the tip of his finger heading straight for the body of the flute in an attempt to break the illusion he assumed to be plaguing this long forgotten temple. Ginto's eyes widened, he had revealed too much. His body moved on instinct, ducking underneath the bullet. Meanwhile, his lack of concentration had caused his elaborate illusion of home to deteriorate, ripping the familiarity of those in blue away. He rose again, anger sharpening his bronze eyes. "You should have left while you could." He spat, drawing a pipe from his waistband and raising it to his lips. He blew into it, sending two large bubbles at Sachiel and Darius respectively, in an attempt to trap them within a surprisingly powerful anti-magic barrier. Darius smirks as the illusions fade and he sees the man with the flute rise up. Found ya, no more shadows to hide behind now. ''He thinks, noticing the two large bubbles flying towards him. A bit dumbfounded at the fact that the man was attacking with...bubbles... Darius could sense the magical energy coming from them and knew they were probably dangerous. He quickly ran out of the way behind the temples sturdy pillars in attempt to dodge whatever effect those bubbles might have held. He stuck out his hand from behind the pillar and aimed to send two more bullets towards the body of the flute in the man's hand. ''That has to be what he is using to haunt this temple, it only makes sense. If we can get that away from him, maybe we can reason with him to leave this place. Sachiel grimaced as his cup of tea was dissolving in front of him, along with the rest of the illusion around him. sachiel looked up as the man spoke seeing the two large bubbles appear. 'Bubbles?' Sachiel thought as he stood up and hid behind a statue in unison to Darius' actions, trusting his judgement, allowing the bubble to pass safely past the two mages. "What do you say we try and grab him and end this Illusion?" Sachiel asked his partner from across the courtyard. Water surrounded Sachiel's hand as he said aloud "Water-Make: Whip" he said as he moved his arm as he was swinging a whip, throwing a tend of water towards one of the man's arm, hoping to pull him to the ground without injury. Category:Roleplay Category:QOS Roleplay Category:RP